As Martese Johnson was being apprehended by officers in an arrest that has since sparked Virginia's governor to call for an investigation, he tried to explain -- his face soaked in blood -- that he was a student at the University of Virginia. He seemingly hoped that would inspire the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control agent to ease up.

“I go to UVA, you f--king racist,” the 20-year-old Johnson, who is black, shouted at a white officer during an exchange captured on video in the hours after Saint Patrick's Day. “How did this happen?”

Despite that plea in the heat of the moment, Johnson's roommate told MTV News on Friday (March 20) that he and Martese were not shocked that an incident like this could occur at their school.

"We were not surprised that it happened at all, because we've seen incidents like this happen before," said Josh Kinlaw, who has lived with Johnson since August 2014. "[We] witness it almost every day -- not anything to [this] magnitude every day, but we witness acts of racism -- both systematically and blatant, in-your-face acts -- every day.

"And so our surprise was not that it happened, our surprise was that it happened to Martese, because of the type of person that we know him to be, and the outstanding leader and figurehead that he is within the community."

I stand with Martese Johnson. There is no excuse for this. @VirginiaABC you should be ashamed. pic.twitter.com/4j3bnfDlBI

— UVAProblems (@UVAProbs) March 18, 2015

Kinlaw, a junior, feels that racism at UVA can be subtle sometimes but is certainly pervasive.

"One of the things that we talked about in one of our meetings was how Greek life continues the cycle of racism that persists among our community, because of the fact that it creates an exclusive environment, which tends to exclude minorities," Kinlaw explained, when asked about conversations he, Johnson and other black students had after the deaths of young black men like Mike Brown and Tamir Rice, who were fatally shot by police officers. "And because Greek life is such a big part of the social life here on the campus, that only perpetuates that racist, cultural lease that exists."

The founder of the institution was a racist. The principles he instilled to create the university were racist. What more needs to be said?

— Apostle Yehoshua (@_KingLaw_) March 20, 2015

Johnson was arrested in the early morning hours on Wednesday, after he was denied entry into a local bar; he was detained and charged with misdemeanor counts of obstructing justice and profane swearing or intoxication in public. That night, a large rally and march was held on campus and, on Friday, the student council held a forum that included the University Police Department, the Charlottesville Police Department and a representative from ABC.

The people on the panel #BlackUVaDemands pic.twitter.com/Ah4HdK7g0W

— East (@HiNilaja) March 20, 2015

Now Kinlaw and others are hoping this will spark a larger reform movement, beyond their own campus.

"We just want people to know these are not isolated incidents that are occurring across the nation," he said, adding that "the black student body and all those in support of us" were constructing a list of grievances and tangible changes to present to the administration in the coming days.

"[These incidents] are related because of the history that this country holds, the very principles that this country and institution were founded upon were those which held us in a light of racism and in a very inhumane light; we were treated as animals," he added. "Because that history is not very far removed -- we're less than 50 years removed from the Civil Rights Movement -- it's important that we allow people to see that history lives."